Pomodori e Vino is a group of nine who, on March 28th, 2010 began a challenge to cook every recipe in Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking"
We are documenting our results here with a post every day.
Check in often.

About Beth

Beth, along with her husband, Mike, is co-owner of two Italian Deli/Markets in St. Louis - Viviano’s Festa Italiano. When not creating yummy new menu items for the deli, she’s the pediatric research lab supervisor at Washington University School of Medicine.
Read more out about Viviano’s Festa Italiano.

About Irene

Irene loves to think, read and dream about food. She enjoys cooking & eating in general. Although she demures about her talents, Irene has a finely-tuned palate that her friends envy. She bakes on occasion. The rest of the time she's creating memories with her family and friends. . . or she's learning a new needlecraft technique.

About Deborah

Deborah is a wife, mother, grandmother, traveler, bootlegger, and a very poor speller!
As Victor Hazan so eloquently puts it, Deborah has chosen Umbria to be the home of her soul. When she can’t be there in body, she spends her free time cooking & reading about Italy. She blogs mostly about food and about trips – past and future –
here: Old Shoes New Trip.

About Doug

Doug lives in Eastern Ontario in a farmhouse built in 1903. He is a retired teacher with four adult children, a wife, a son-in-law, two Irish step-grandchildren and one grandson who he is lucky to hang with a lot. He has way too many books. Doug also blogs at To Slow Time Down.

About Cindy

Cindy lives in Eagle River, Alaska where her freezer is always full of salmon, halibut & shrimp. Cindy participates in several regular cooking challenges. You can read more about her cooking and life in the last frontier on her blog, Baked Alaska.

About Sandi

Sandi is a true Southerner, but a traveler & Italian cook at heart. She lives in Alabama and knows more about fried green tomatoes than fricassees. Her family owned the WhistleStop Café for many years. Sandi also blogs at Whistlestop Cafe Cooking.

About Jan

Jan, a serious home cook, has owned “Essentials” since 1992. She is passionate about all things Italian, especially the cuisine & the language. Jan blogs about her travels (next trip Italy May/June of 2010) at: Keep your Feet in the Street.

About Jerry

Jerry is a food obsessed Canadian. He learned to love Italian food as a child while eating the meals prepared by his Napolitano uncle. He learned to cook Italian foods by watching his uncle cook these feasts for the family. This love of Italian food has been honed through serious personal experimentation in eating and cooking. Willing to try most anything once, Jerry isn't so sure about tripe! Jerry also blogs at Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!

About Palma

Palma is a Marriage & Family Therapist in Palm Desert, CA. She’s an Italian-American with a passion for cooking, entertaining, & travel to Italy. She’s always planning her next culinary adventure to Italia on her blog, Palmabella's Passions

Sfinciuni - Palermo's Stuffed Pizza

Wow, I can't believe I only have one recipe after this one left to finish out our Pomodori E Vino project. What an experience this has been.

And how great to finish up with another fantastic recipe. Marcella explains that Sfinciuni is to Palermo what pizza is to Naples and elsewhere. It is two thin layers of dough that enclose a filling, called the conza, then the edges are pinched together to seal the filling in.

While this is similar to a pizza, it's also different. The dough was so nice to work with - soft and smooth. The filling is a mixture of onion, ground beef, unsmoked ham, Italian fontina cheese, ricotta cheese, and white wine. When I tasted a piece of this, the dough reminded me more of a bread dough than a pizza dough. I guess it was the texture of it-a little softer than a crunchy thin crust pizza. It really doesn't matter what it reminded me of, as all I know is that is was really good. Can't wait to make the varieties you'll see my co-cooks do next - Tomato and Anchovy and Broccoli and Ricotta. Humm, I do have a tub of fresh ricotta that I made a couple of days ago...

Comments (3)

I wish you were my neighbor, Cindy. I love fresh ricotta, and I have bought what was called fresh ricotta here in Florida, but it isn't what I understood to be fresh ricotta when I was getting it at my formaggiaio in Rialto.

PS: I am assuming you'd let me have some if lived next door.

Marcella-I also wish you were my neighbor. I'm sure we'd have a lot of fun cooking together. And I would most certainly share my home-made cheese with you!
Cindy

Another amazing recipe Mz Cindy!! The filling made me think "philly cheese steak" but even better!!! (with wine *thumbsup*). How exciting for all of you to be winding up this phenomenol project. it's been such an honor to follow along!!!